[Check out Richard C's comment -- click "comments" at bottom of post -- with more information on the French Foreign Legion and its presence in Camarón...I'd love to hear more about their unauthorized presence! EKB]
Recently a friend of ours suggested a visit to El Camarón de Tejeda. We'd never heard of it. He's a history buff, though, and had more than heard of it -- he'd investigated it. El Camarón is the site of an unusual battle during the same period of time as the Battle of Puebla, which you in the states celebrate on Cinco de Mayo. Cinco de Mayo is not even an official holiday in Mexico, probably because it marks a victory that was perhaps pyrrhic: the Mexicans won it, but ended up at least temporarily losing the war a bit later on. The French had decided to invade Mexico after the president, Benito Juárez, had suspended interest payments on Mexico's international debt in 1861. This is a complicated bit of history, and I won't go into it here except to say that Napoleon III wanted to expand his empire to include Mexico and saw this as an excuse to go for Mexico. The Cinco de Mayo battle occurred when the French successfully marched from Veracruz, on the east coast, through the mountains to the City of Puebla where they were stopped by Mexican forces on Cinco de Mayo, the 5th of May, 1862. It is notable that the Mexicans were outnumbered 2:1. One of the Mexican generals in charge was named Seguín. I'm not sure if he is related, but there is a long line of Seguíns in the San Antonio, Texas area, including one who fought on the US side against Santa Ana at the Battle of the Alamo.
Anyway, the following year, the French brought down Puebla by means of a siege. During the siege, a small force of the French Foreign Legion was escorting French supplies from Veracruz to Puebla when it was attacked by Mexicans. Apparently there were a couple of thousand Mexicans and maybe 75 members of the French Foreign Legion. The Legion refused to surrender until finally there were only two or three surviving. They said they would not give up unless they could transport their mortally wounded leader to Veracruz and then to France. This battle was very important to the Legion: it marked their move to fighting outside of Africa and it gave them self-respect. The Legion was apparently created to employ all kinds of vagrant remains of Napoleon's army, and was regarded as riff-raff by more respectable French types. At the Battle of Camarón, they fought with great bravery.
The day is marked by the town of El Camarón de Tejeda in honor of the bravery of the Foreign Legion. An interesting phenomenon: the Mexicans honoring the French. In France, it is the biggest celebration the Legion has.
Anyway, we went to El Camarón this year for the celebration. El Camarón is in a hotter, flatter, dryer part of Veracruz than we are used to. At about 1200', at this, the hottest time of the year in our whole area, the daytime highs tend to be in the mid-nineties or higher. It is bright and glaringly sunny. BUT I must be getting better at heat because I survived pretty well.
We picked up our friends in Coatepec at around 9 in the morning of the 30th of April and mosied down towards Camarón figuring the parade would probably start at around noon. On the way, we crossed this single-lane bridge:
This level is for cars. The sign says to obey the signal for your safety. Trains go on the upper level. It is quite a drop to the river below, and the boards, laid across railings but not anchored, rattle and creak the whole length of the bridge. But it works.
We arrived in Camarón to find that we had actually missed the parade! The celebration has been stretched to three days, starting on April 29, and the parade actually took place at 9:00 in the morning on the 30th.
So here are some POST-parade photos.
This is the giant area commemorating the battle: very large for a town of about 5700 people. It says "hommage to the combatants of Camarón."
There was a big welcome sign, a little bedraggled by the time we got there. The government of Veracruz invites the French to come and participate, and indeed, there were French tourists, I think French diplomats and French Foreign Legion folks.
It is in French, and my VERY, VERY rusty French leads me to believe it says: Dear Legionnaire friends, the Council of Brotherhood and the inhabitants of Camerón offer you welcome and a good time at the celebrations for the 147th anniversary of the Battle of Camerón. (Corrections welcome).
There is a cattle and ranching association that must have been impressive marching in the parade. Here are some afterwards with a banner thanking the Governor -- I'm not sure for what. Maybe for recognizing the day and coming with other dignitaries in his helicopter to participate in the ceremonies.
We wandered through the town a bit. The railway still goes through twice a day.
The old train station:
A horseman passing an old building on the street behind the railroad station.
More horseman (they were wonderful to see):
Some actual French Foreign Legionnaires (or maybe just French soldiers):
A dude with a camera:
And finally, a public service announcement about saving water. I think these may be more effective than spots on TV.
It says, in part:
Water is indispensable.
Without it, life would simply not exist.
John Todd, Jr. has a very nice article on his site on Camarón and his adventures learning about it here.